Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

View to the east. Mount Franklin can be seen in the distance. Photo by John Ellis

The July FOBIF walk was to Malcolm Fyffe’s property in Sandon. This was a much appreciated opportunity to visit a farming property with lush undulating pastures and spectacular views.

Malcolm gave running commentary on the history of the property. Glenwillow has been farmed by his family since the 1940s and after a career in teaching Malcolm took over management of the farm. Over the past few years assisted by Bush Tender funding he has been able to improve and rehabilitate the property by erecting fencing to keep out stock from existing vegetation and waterways. He has also worked on weed and pest control and undertaken strategic plantings.

Stand of Hedge Wattle. Photo by Noel Young

The differences in soil and rainfall in this area which is to the south of Castlemaine have resulted in comparatively vigorous growth on common local plants such as coffee bush and hedge wattle.

Finds of particular interest were unusual fungi including some that were pink and bright red and a Striped Greenhood Pterostylis striata. These plants and other scenes from the day can be viewed in the slideshow below. The photos were taken by Noel Young, John Ellis and Bronwyn Silver.

Peron's Tree Frog--Litoria peronii. Photo by John Ellis

FOBIF’s Mamunya photo exhibition 2012, which ended last week, was the most successful yet. A record number of photos was sold, and we were pleased with the attention paid by the public to the notes attached to the photos. We’re particularly grateful to the kind soul who corrected our mistake the scientific name for Peron’s Tree Frog– an unaccountable error fortunately not repeated in the photo in our picture gallery.

Council is currently seeking community input and feedback to the Draft Roadside Conservation Management Plan. The Plan contains eighteen actions to guide Council’s roadside operations and protection works, including improving communications with the community, Landcare and other agencies about roadsides.

In 2008 the Catchment Management Authority ran a detailed ecological survey which found that 19% of Mount Alexander Shire’s roadsides had high conservation value, and a further 28% were of medium conservation value: that’s 1090 kilometres of roadsides with interesting stuff worth careful management: and given the Shire’s obligations to road safety and fire prevention, it’s not a simple matter.

Sutton Grange road: over a thousand kms of the shire's roadsides have reasonable conservation values, but careful management will be needed to ensure these values are preserved.

There will be a listening post session at the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre (corner Church and Edward Streets in Maldon) on Wednesday 18 July from 11.30am to 1.30pm. 

On the following day, Thursday 19 July, a session will be at the Ray Bradfield Room in Castlemaine from 6pm to 8pm for light supper, brief presentation and discussion.

You can find the draft plan at  www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au/roadsides along with a link to an online survey where you can make comments about the Plan. Enquires can be sent to Kylie Stafford, Council’s Natural Environment Officer, at  k.stafford@mountalexander.vic.gov.au or 5471 1700. The survey will be open until 5pm Thursday 26 July 2012.

Here’s advance notice that FOBIF’s Annual General Meeting will take place at Castlemaine Continuing Education Centre at 7.30 pm on Monday August 13.

After the usual business, there will be a short talk by Damian Kelly on the challenges and rewards of bird photography. Readers of this site will be familiar with Damian’s brilliant photos of local bird life, and he will illustrate his talk with some recent examples.

Brown Thornbill. Photo by Damian Kelly. This is one of three photos of birds by Damian included in the current FOBIF exhibition at Togs Cafe.

The June FOBIF walk led by Doug Ralph was to the remote Tarilta Creek Valley. Readers of this site will know that this area was the subject of controlled burn this Autumn. (See previous FOBIF post.) The day allowed walkers to see the effects of this burn first-hand.

Most of the walk was through bush that had been devastated. Mature trees were lying burnt on the ground and severe erosion was evident as a result of  the burning of steep slopes. Consequently parts of this once beautiful creek were now full of black silt. Apart from epicormic growth on burnt trees and some ground covers such as Scented Sundews there was little evidence of recovery. One of the walkers, Noel Young, commented:

I was dismayed by the number of large mature eucalypts that were completely destroyed in the bottom of the valley.  This represents the destruction of much needed wildlife habitat which has taken maybe 50 to 100 years to grow.  I doubt if this was intended, but it probably reflects the methods used, ie, weapons of mass destruction (fire bombing) with little or no ground supervision.  Hardly a “controlled burn”.

Below are two slideshows. The first one contains photos of Tarilta Gorge before the controlled burn. The second collection contains photos taken after the burn including on the walk.

At the end of the walk there was a short discussion led by Doug about the area and the effects of the burn. Mount Alexander Shire Councillor, Christine Henderson, spoke about the Municipal Fire Plan which has just been released and encouraged walkers to submit comments to Council about the burn in this area based on their observations. See recent FOBIF posts here and here for more detail on this.

The July FOBIF walk on 15 July will be to the McKinnon property at Yandoit. Malcolm Fyffe will be the leader.